From: "Donna Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 16:16:16 -0700 To: "Rad Green" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [R-G] Fw: Starhawk: Why we Need to Stay in the Streets ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Everton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 11:46 AM Subject: Starhawk: Why we Need to Stay in the Streets > After Genoa: Why We Need to Stay in the Streets > > By Starhawk > > Since Genoa, there has been lots of healthy debate about where the > movement needs to go. The large scale protests are becoming more dangerous > and difficult. The summits are moving to inaccessible locations. The IMF > and the World Bank and the G8 and the WTO continue to do their > business. Are we being effective enough to justify the risks we're > taking? Should we be focusing more on local work, building our day-to-day > networking and organizing? > > I was in Genoa. Because of what I experienced there, including the moments > of real terror and horror, I am more convinced than ever that we need to > stay in the streets. We need to continue mounting large actions, > contesting summits, working on the global scale. > > Our large scale actions have been extraordinarily effective. I've heard > despairing counsels that the protests have not affected the debates in the > G8 or the WTO or the IM/World Bank. In fact they have, they have > significantly changed the agendas and the propaganda issuing forth. In any > case, the actual policies of these institutions will be the last thing to > change. But for most of us on the streets, changing the debate within > these institutions is not our purpose. Our purpose is to undercut their > legitimacy, to point a spotlight at their programs and policies, and to > raise the social costs of their existence until they become > insupportable. Contesting the summits has delegitimized these institutions > in a way no local organizing possibly can. The big summit meetings are > elaborate rituals, ostentatious shows of power that reinforce the > entitlement and authority of the bodies they represent. When those bodies > are forced to meet behind walls, to fight a pitched battle over every > conference, to retreat to isolated locations, the ritual is interrupted and > their legitimacy is undercut. The agreements that were being negotiated in > secret are brought out into the spotlight of public scrutiny. The lie that > globalization means democracy is exposed; and the mask of benevolence is > ripped off. > > Local organizing simply can't do this as effectively as the big > demonstrations. Local organizing is vital, and there are other things it > does do: outreach, education, movement building, the creation of viable > alternatives, the amelioration of some of the immediate effects of global > policy. We can't and won't abandon the local, and in fact never > have: many of us work on both scales. No one can go to every summit: we > all need to root ourselves in work in our own communities. But many of us > have come to the larger, global actions because we understand that the > trade agreements and institutions we contest are designed to undo all of > our local work and override the decisions and aspirations of local > communities. > > We can make it a conscious goal of every large scale action to strengthen > local networks and support local organizing. Aside from Washington DC, > Brussels, or Geneva, which have no choice, no city is ever going to host > one of these international meetings twice. Even now, we hear rumors that > Washington is considering relocating or limiting the upcoming IMF/World > Bank meeting. But if we find ways to organize mass actions that leave > resources and functioning coalitions behind, then each grand action can > strengthen and support the local work that continues on a daily basis. > > Summits won't remain the nice, juicy, targets that they are for long. Over > the last two years, we've reaped an agenda of meetings that were set and > contracted for before Seattle. Now that they are locating the meetings in > ever more obscure and isolated venues, we need a strategy that can allow us > to continue building momentum. > > As an example, some of us have been talking about linked, large-scale > regional actions targeting stock exchanges and financial institutions when > the WTO meets in Qatar in November. The message we'll be sending is: "If > you move the summits beyond our reach, and continue the policies of power > consolidation and wealth concentration, then social unrest will spread > beyond these specific institutions to challenge the whole structure of > global corporate capitalism itself." Marches, teach-ins, countersummits, > programs of positive alternatives alone can't pose this level of threat to > the power structure, but combined with direct action on the scale we've now > reached, they can. > > Of course, the more successful we are, the meaner they get. But when they > use force against us, we still win, even though the victory comes at a high > cost. Systems of power maintain themselves through our fear of the force > they can command, but force is costly. They cannot sustain themselves if > they have to actually use force in order to accomplish every normal > function. > > Genoa was a victory won at a terrible price. I hope never to undergo > another night like I spent when they raided the IMC and the Diaz school, > knowing that atrocities were being done just across the way and not being > able to stop them. I ache and grieve and rage over the price. I would do > almost anything to assure that no one, especially no young person, ever > suffers such brutality again. > > Almost anything. Anything except backing away from the struggle. Because > that level of violence and brutality is being enacted, daily, all over the > world. It's the shooting of four students in New Guinea, the closing of a > school in Senegal, the work quota in a maquiladora on the Mexican border, > the clearcutting of a forest in Oregon, the price of privatized water in > Cochabamba. It's the violence being perpetrated on the bodies of youth, > especially youth of color, in prisons all over the United States, and the > brutality and murder going on in Colombia, Palestine, VenezuelaS And it's > the utter disregard for the integrity of the ecosystems that sustain us all. > > I don't see the choice as being between the danger of a large action and > safety. I no longer see any place of safety. Or rather, I see that in > the long run our safest course is to act strongly now. The choice is about > when and how we contest the powers that are attempting to close all > political space for true dissent. > > Genoa made clear that they will fight ruthlessly to defend the > consolidation of their power, but we still have a broad space in which to > organize and mount large actions. We need to defend that space by using > it, filling and broadening it. Either we continue to fight them together > now when we can mount large-scale, effective actions, or we fight them > later in small, isolated groups, or alone when they break down the doors of > our homes in the middle of the night. Either we wage this struggle when > there are still living forests, running rivers, and resilience left in the > life support systems of the planet, or we fight when the damage is even > deeper and the hope of healing slim. > > We have many choices about how to wage the struggle. We can be more > strategic, more creative, more skillful in what we do. We can learn to > better prepare people for what they might face, and to better support > people afterwards. We have deep questions to consider about violence and > nonviolence, about our tactics and our long range vision, which I hope to > address in a later posting. > > But those choices remain only so long as we keep open the space in > which to make them. We need to grow, not shrink. We need to explore and > claim new political territory. We need the actions of this autumn to be > bigger, wilder, more creatively outrageous and inspiring than ever, from > the IMF/World Bank actions in Washington DC at the end of September to the > many local and regional actions in November when the WTO meets in > Quatar. We need to stay in the streets. > > Starhawk www.starhawk.org > > > _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
